The Indiscretion

Description

The Indiscretion is from a suite of three scenes of women sharing secrets in the privacy of their boudoirs. The woman wearing a decadent hat has taken a love letter from the girl in white, who pleads with her older companion to give it back. Janinet refined the tools used in chalk-manner printmaking to create wash-manner etchings and engravings that imitate opaque watercolors, such as The Lover’s Visit and The Surprised Lovers on view nearby.

Provenance

Cortland F. Bishop (Lugt Supplement 2770b); [American Art Association/ Anderson Galleries, 1935, lot 103, illustrated, p. 67]

The Indiscretion

Jean François Janinet

1788

Accession Number

2001.18

Medium

Color wash-manner engraving and etching

Dimensions

Sheet: 57.6 x 43 cm (22 11/16 x 16 15/16 in.); Platemark: 48.3 x 36.2 cm (19 x 14 1/4 in.)

Classification

Print

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

John L. Severance Fund